Kenny Jules Morifi-Winslow - The Third Citizen
Culture. Fashion. Design. Art. These are the realms of expression that peppered our chat over coffee in Johannesburg’s upwardly trendy Rosebank. Kenny Jules Morifi-Winslow is a South African creative who has dedicated her career to the study of culture, fashion and art. A fashion anthropologist and Master’s graduate from Parsons School Of Design, Kenny writes The IIIRD Citizen. Her lifestyle blog integrates academic essays, creative writings and poems that contribute towards opening critical discussions. On The IIIRD Citizen, Kenny expresses her passion for culture and fashion through literary works .She inspires her readers to look at the concept of fashion beyond the visual appeal while ensuring she stays current by publishing the latest reviews from the fashion, design and food industry.
In the following interview, Kenny shares what exploring different countries was like throughout her childhood and the reason why being educated about culture and society is so important to her. Most significantly, she discusses the factors that played a role in shaping who Kenny Morifi Winslow is as we know her today.
I KNOW THAT YOU’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT CULTURE AND FASHION BUT EXACTLY WHO IS KENNY AND WHAT DRIVES HER? That is like asking how long a piece of string is, it depends. I think as people we are in the same way as culture – ever changing and ever evolving .The person I was is not the same person I am today based on the experiences of yesterday and the experiences of today. I am a passionate person, I think I’m a little bit volatile because of it, a bit intense, I think I’m grounded , I like plans and organization. But I’m also a dreamer in a sense that I don’t confine myself to the limits of possibility, of thinking. And I’ve proven that to myself in achieving all of those typesets so I have no reason to doubt that. So yeah: grounded, dreamer, believer, passionate, intense, and curious.
HOW HAS PHILOSOPHY AND ANTHROPOLOGY INFLUENCED THE WAY YOU SEE LIFE?
I always wanted to study Fashion Design but my parents weren’t keen on it. My dad wanted me to study law. So first degree I was accepted for a straight LLB at UCT, I arrived at registration day and I was like I actually can’t do this. This is not who I am, I’m going to be miserable and I switched to Anthropology, Artistry and Media. Anthropology at its core is a way of thinking, it’s a way of looking at the world, and it’s an interrogation essentially. Anthropology teaches you how to ask questions .And I think that had a very strong influence in how I approached fashion in general because it was so important to me. I wanted to do so much more than just make it, I wanted to understand it and I wanted other people to understand it, and to recognize that it is not as simple as putting on a t-shirt and glasses. There are so many questions you can interrogate about a single product that I have taken upon myself to ask about the fashion industry as a whole. It’s a cultural statement. It’s identity, its politics, it is everything.
YOU HAVE A VERY UNIQUE SENSE OF STYLE. WAS IT FORMED AS YOU DISCOVERED YOUR IDENTITY OR IT’S ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF YOU?
In my youth I was a lot more playful when it came to my clothing, more colour, I took more risks. I still wanted to look cool without thinking too hard. That was reflective of the stage I was in my life. It’s very easy to be carefree when you’re a student. Going to Parsons and moving to New York City by myself was an emotional rollercoaster. I had to grow up very quickly with that experience. By attending one of the top fashion schools in the world you’re exposed to so many more influences. The older I get, the simpler my style becomes because I start to understand things like quality, what luxury actually means and what style actually means. Trends mean absolutely nothing to me. I still have things in my closet from when I was 16 and things that my mom wore when she was 21 because they are timeless classic pieces. If you focus on shape, fabrication and the way things are made, then the time period you’re wearing it in or even what color it is doesn’t matter. You can always work it into your wardrobe. My style is at its core influenced by the things I studied. Art History teaches you how to think about proportion, shape and color. Anthropology influenced the way I think about how my clothes are made, where my clothes are made and what my clothes are made out of. And then my Master’s Degree was the mix of both. It taught me about sustainability, ethical production and cultural significance. It taught me how the choices I’m making impact my identity, what they say about my identity and how the rest of the world interacts with that.
YOU HAVE LIVED IN CAPE TOWN, LONDON, JOHANNESBURG AND NEW YORK. WHAT WAS THE EXPERIENCE OF NAVIGATING ALL THESE CITIES LIKE?
Wow, I could write a book about it. London is where I grew up. That is where I spent the majority of my life. From London it was Johannesburg then Cape Town for 4 years and then it was New York. Navigating those spaces was wild from a racial perspective most prominently. In London I went to an international school. It was a small diverse group with people from all over the world so we were exposed to a lot of cultures and I wasn’t weird. Then I moved to Johannesburg. Being mixed race had never been an issue until I came back to South Africa as a teenager. People started calling me coloured and they couldn’t understand why I don’t speak Afrikaans and I’m trying to explain that I’m not colored. That was kind of tricky. And then Cape Town of course – the majority of my friends and my social circle are black. Cape Town is a very white city so were always very conscious about the spaces where we were safe, welcome or unwelcome in. The racial divide in that city is unreal. And then I moved to New York where mixed race people are considered black. I was there at the time when Black Lives Matter movement was at its peak. I feel like I became a staunch defender of my blackness. Moving to New York and learning about these things made me feel like I am black because as much as I benefit from privileges such as Colorism because I’m light-skinned and I have good hair, I win in that way. But at the same time I am still prejudiced in the same way that a lot of black people actually are. So why not fight for those struggles instead of just defending my privileges? But you learn to adapt quickly. The move from South Africa to London which was the first big move really taught me how to navigate spaces and then moving every time after that became easy.
I LOVE IT WHEN YOU SPEAK ABOUT PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN. YOU SPEAK OF IT WITH SO MUCH PASSION. HOW HAS PURSUING A MASTERS IN FASHION AT THIS INSTITUTION OPENED YOUR MIND?
My Masters programme was only 5 years old in the world and this particular course was called Fashion Studies. It had only existed for 5 years and they only accepted 30 people a year into this programme. What was really special about that particular programme is that you don’t have to have a background in Fashion. I was in class with people who had Politics degrees, economic degrees and people who came from Development backgrounds. Then we would all sit in class and have to apply our individual knowledge skillsets to this one topic. I think one of the most incredible experiences was the resources that people are. It completely changed the way I think about the work that I do. The resources I had at my disposal were unbelievable, absolutely incredible. New York City itself is a resource; the books, the museums and the galleries – incredible. So I think it completely changed the way that I think about what I do in the sense that people ask all the time, “what do you do” and they expect one job like I’m a banker or I’m an accountant. What Parsons taught me in particular is that there is no way to define the thing that I do now is because it has so many angles and facets.
WHY IS SUSTAINABLE FOOD AND DESIGN SUCH AN IMPORTANT COURSE TO YOU?
On a global scale, we have done a lot of damage to the environment. Capitalism has done a lot of damage to the environment and being conscious of it is a way to remedy some of that damage. I think it is especially important in developing economies like South Africa because it presents an opportunity for us not to make the same mistakes as developed countries. We can develop at the same rate without making the same mistakes. If we can build an economy that is already ethical and focused on sustainable production then by the time we become as big or as powerful or as rich as America, we don’t have issues like wage gaps, gender pay gaps or carbon emissions. To highlight those issues is to learn from the mistakes of the developed nations and prevent them in developing nations. It’s always a juggle between my world and my life in the first world where it’s about how do we reduce our emissions, how do we limit our impact on the environment. And then I come here and it’s about what are the ways moving forward we can achieve the same thing without making that mistake. How do we avoid genetically modified products? How do we avoid outsourcing our production systems to places like China and Taiwan? By building those production systems here, you circulate the money, wealth and the production to keep the entire supply chain local and we stimulate our own economy in the same way that China did. Then we run into whole new issues because China has issues with chemicals leaking into the environment and now there’s a chemical impact on the environment. There are so many plot points we need to identify and I think sustainability and ethical production in designing and food - particularly in South Africa - are the ways that we ensure a healthy growth process for the economy.
AFRICAN FEMINISM IS A TOPIC YOU HAVE HIGHLIGHTED IN YOUR PREVIOUS WORKS. WHAT DOES IT REPRESENT TO YOU?
It is important for us to have our own brand of feminism because feminism as we understand it is a very white concept. White women are very happy to fight for gender but never for race. They become two different issues for them. Whereas for black woman in particular it’s not one or the other, it’s both all the time. We need to start unpacking for ourselves what that means – what black feminism means what it means when we talk about each other’s hair textures and when we number them or when we tell girls who wear weaves that its synthetics and you’re not natural or why are braids and dreadlocks more highly respected than weaves and relaxed hair. Those are topics that are so unique to us and we sometimes overlook what that does to black womanhood. A lot of people aren’t honest about the thoughts that they have and if we don’t talk about them we can’t fix them. It’s really important for me to champion black feminism especially because it’s a fight our mothers didn’t get to fight and it has fallen on us now because we have the voice and we have the platforms to be able to talk about these things. I have a platform with an audience so why not talk about the real stuff?
WHY IS CULTURAL APPROPRIATION A DEBATE YOU FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT?
The problem with cultural appropriation is power. People think that it is about “creative integrity” and “this thing belongs to us and doesn’t belong to you” – no, it is about power. It’s also important to trace the history of things we think belong to us. Shweshwe print was given as a gift to King Shweshwe. It didn’t come from us; we just adopted these things and made them apart of our culture. The problem is when they take it back from us; make money off of what we have created now as our culture without referencing the process of how we got there. Cultural appropriation is such a tricky debate and there is so much grey area when it comes to cultural appropriation that we have to interrogate. That is the point of things like anthropology, the point of the work that I do. It is to go a little bit deeper and take it one step further. When we claim wax prints –who brought wax prints to Africa? Vasco da Gama is a Dutch company and they brought that stuff here. We didn’t make them we just claimed them so whose culture are we really appropriating? But the difference with that is it was never part of Dutch culture, it was part of the Dutch economy. And now we have the difference between culture and economy which we have to define and that filters into so many conversations about food and politics. Cultural appropriation is deep. People think fashion is frivolous-no, it’s a cultural history of a people or a person or a place.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SOUTH AFRICAN OR AFRICAN CREATIVE INDUSTRY AT THE MOMENT?
I think we should separate South Africa from the rest of the continent because there’s a lot of amazing stuff happening in countries such as Nigeria and Kenya. And the thing that they have that we are lacking is patriotism in our designs. They believe in their own work, aesthetic and style. They produce it themselves and it has a very unique perspective. I love that. But I think South Africa is still struggling with replicating international designs or styles instead of creating our own. Especially when it comes to street wear labels; it’s just copy & paste of international street wear labels. But then if you think about things like furniture design, we’re really excelling in things like that because we are the home of those natural resources. Therefore our artisans have a much better access to those things and have a fresh perspective because we’re such a diverse country. There are so many cultures to pull from, take inspiration from and to diversify and make new. I think that’s really cool. But we still haven’t found a way to do that when it comes to fashion whole-heartedly. We have a long way to go when it comes to that.
IN THIS AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA WITH SO MUCH HAPPENING IN OUR GENERATION, AND AROUND US, WHAT KEEPS YOU GROUNDED?
I’m a writer at the very core of what I do, however I do it. What keeps me grounded is that to be a writer – a good writer- you have to write about yourself. You are the subject that you know best so a lot of my work and most of the work that has garnered me the most praise is the personal stuff where I can take something that is personal to me and make it about something outside of myself. People get so concerned with being a brand that they even forget to be a person. I think that’s what people forget when it comes to social media and being an influencer. My brand is being a person. My whole brand is built on being human and sharing human stories and sharing my perspective on things we’re talking about, the things that aren’t sexy and are a little bit dark and a little bit ugly but that everyone can relate to. All of these different things that people don’t really talk about especially on a high profile and highly visible platform. My philosophy is to use that platform for exactly that. So I think the work itself keeps me grounded. There is no way I could float into the sky because the reason that I have any kind of popularity is because I’m so open and so honest about who I am as a person and how I became that way.
HOW DO YOU MANAGE ENDORSING BRANDS WHILE STILL STAYING TRUE TO WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON?
It’s a really tough thing to do. Sometimes brands will approach you and here’s my thing- this thing called integrity. I don’t mind saying no to brands and I’ve said no to a lot of brands. Because on a superficial level it doesn’t fit who I am, how I dress, the things I do or how I consume things. But even with the brands that I do say yes to, it’s why am I saying yes, do I have enough creative control to be able to write my own story and slot this in. Or is it a straight up brand endorsement? Even with the brands that I’ve worked with - I’ve spent my own money in the past or I’m currently spending my own money and I can find an angle, a narrative to tell a story and that’s important to me. It is to be able to tell stories through brands; that’s advertising. Advertising is all about creating an emotional connection between a consumer and a product. I am the emotional connection between a consumer and a product.
WHO ARE THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE PLAYED A ROLE IN SHAPING WHO KENNY IS TODAY?
Wow, so many people, but obviously my parents at a foundational level. I know everyone says that but I think that with me it’s a little bit deeper than that because like I said I’m mixed race. My mom is black Sotho and my dad is white Italian American. So a lot of my interest in culture, language and history comes from them. A lot of my activism I learnt from home. And a lot of my curiosity, appreciation for knowledge and education I learnt at home -which I’m grateful for. My upbringing- moving around a lot has taught me adaptability in particular ways and particular situations. You have to be a chameleon. But outside of that, I think there are external influences like people that I’ve never met, icons that I admire, writers, poets, photographers, film directors but I’ve never met them so I can’t really say they have shaped me into who I am. The men that I have loved in my life have played very significant roles in how I became the person that I am. The kinds of men that I’ve loved have all represented a different lesson, a different learning. And I think as much as I’ve always been a creative writer in particular, certain loves have given me poetry and have given me a depth of feeling that is now very important to the quality of my work. It’s about who you are and who you become in and out of love that shapes how you move forward. There’s a reason that you were there. They taught me things and you’ve taught me things and I carry those lessons around with me every day in every form - In the way that I write and the things that I write about.
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST LESSONS YOU’VE LEARNT ON YOUR PATH?
1) The most recent one was the struggle between being an exceptional student to feeling like a mediocre adult. I was a straight A student my entire school career – from grade 1 to my Master’s degree. It’s very easy to grade schoolwork – you get a brief, produce work and get a mark back. I’m good at that. And then when I came into the world after that I was trying to navigate not having a rigid system to validate me. I don’t have professors that are praising my work. I don’t have a report card that says cumm laude – it’s just life. And in life, there are so many other people, who can do what you do, who do what you do and might do it better. Then you suddenly went from competing in this tiny little pool into this massive big world and that’s tough. That’s a really tough adjustment to make especially if you’re working freelance like I do. Going from being a student to being just a regular grown up person working was hard. It’s a game of pivots – just keep moving, switching and figuring it out.
2) Another lesson that I’ve learnt is that sometimes you’re the problem. We are very quick to point fingers and say they did this which is why I did that or well you did worse than I did. We’re quick to compare, we’re quick to pass judgments. When you take all of that away sometimes you are the problem – you need to fix some issues in yourself.
3) The third lesson that I’ve leant is that sometimes you have to ask for help when you need it. Don’t be precious about asking for help or sharing ideas. I leant this year what collaboration actually means. It’s not you do one thing and you do another and then we put them together. It’s about how do we marry our two schools of thought or our two ways of thinking or perspectives into this one product at the end. It’s very easy to say, but it’s much harder to do and execute.
OKAY, NOW THIS IS A FUN ONE. WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 3 LIFESTYLE TIPS?
1) Don’t force the issue: People have this thing about flamboyancy and doing too much. That for me is not style - that is fashion. Fashion comes and goes. At school we used to differentiate between fashion with a capital ‘F’ and fashion with a small letter ‘f’. Fashion with a capital ‘F’ is trends – what’s trendy right now. Fashion with a small ‘f’ is the way you make something, the way you fashion something – production or a thought process. When I say don’t do too much I mean don’t do fashion with a capital ‘F’. Forget about trends.
2) Identify what your style staples are and stick to them. And then you can deviate from that in small ways. I’ve got a uniform colour palette and set of shapes. I like neutral colors. The place where I have a lot of fun with my fashion and my wardrobe is shapes. So you can have a whole white wardrobe if you want but have interesting shapes, interesting cuts and interesting styles.
3) Rather save your money and buy less at better quality. I think this is the most important tip. I have blazers that were bought for me when I was a teenager. I still have a Michael Kors tuxedo blazer my mom bought for me when I was 16 in New York. It will forever be timeless because it is so well made, such great quality. Before I would buy a new outfit whenever I went out but now I’ll buy 2 pairs of really well-tailored trousers and then I’ll buy 4 really well-made shirts. That becomes a staple. From there you build and you add small things, small detail. But the core staple remains the same. Choose quality over quantity.
SO WHAT IS NEXT FOR KENNY MORIFI WINSLOW?
Ooooh! I’ve got a big project in the works. I don’t want to reveal too much but March of 2018 keep your eyes peeled. I started a company and we do something very unique. But it has its own name, its own look and its own brand identity independent of Kenny Jules Morifi-Winslow. It’s going to be cool.
WHAT MESSAGE WOULD YOU SEND TO PEOPLE WHO ASPIRE TO WORK IN THIS CREATIVE SPHERE?
I would say – and this is something I learnt from Anthony Bila (The Expressionist) - he studied something so far away from the thing he does now. He worked in advertising and after 10 years, he quit. He only started following his real passion at the age of 29. In the last two years he has excelled like out of this world - his work has been exhibited internationally, he consults on panels; he directs commercials that we see on television. He is behind so many things and we just see the photographs that he takes. Anthony has worked so long and so hard in the creative sphere to build enough respect and credibility to be able to do things that he didn’t study. I’d use that example to communicate to young people to do the work. You don’t have to study it. A lot of people can’t afford to study – the internet is your teacher. Consume things, look at different things, look at film, listen to music, go places you’ve never gone before. Do things outside of what you think is your style or your vibe, experience things and just create. The thing we do as creatives is we agonize over the idea. Is it going to be good enough? How am I going to do it? Essentially you’re doing it for you, if you’re not doing it for you then you’ve got this whole thing wrong. Creativity is problem solving and a lot of those problems are in us. Do whatever it takes to find your thing and just keep doing it.
By using her platform, Kenny continues to push forward the movement of African feminism, cultural appropriation and ethical food & design through eloquent literature. The knowledge that she has garnered from Anthropology and Masters in Fashion is reflected in her work as she inspires us to look at these topics with a much more critical approach. With an eye for aesthetic visuals, a timeless minimalistic style sense and a depth to her soul, Kenny Jules Morifi-Winslow is a young activist using her power to raise awareness for a sustainable future in the world of art, fashion and design.
Images source: www.instagram.com/kennyjmw/
The IIIRD Citizen: thethirdcitizen.com